Joseph and Mary

Joseph and Mary written by James Elroy Flecker

Forty-Two Poems (1911)

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Joseph:

Mary, art thou the little maid
  Who plucked me flowers in Spring?
I know thee not; I feel afraid:
  Thou'rt strange this evening.

A sweet and rustic girl I won
  What time the woods were green;
No woman with deep eyes that shone,
  And the pale brows of a Queen.


Mary: (inattentive to his words)

A stranger came with feet of flame
  And told me this strange thing,-
For all I was a village maid
  My son should be a King.


Joseph:

A King, dear wife? Who ever knew
  Of Kings in stables born!


Mary:

Do you hear, in the dark and starlit blue
  The clarion and the horn?


Joseph:

Mary, alas, lest grief and joy
  Have sent thy wits astray;
But let me look on this my boy,
  And take the wraps away.


Mary:

Behold the lad.


Joseph:

I dare not gaze:
Light streams from every limb.


Mary:

The winter sun has stored his rays,
And passed the fire to him.

Look Eastward, look! I hear a sound.
O Joseph, what do you see?


Joseph:

The snow lies quiet on the ground
And glistens on the tree;

The sky is bright with a star's great light,
And clearly I behold
Three Kings descending yonder hill,
Whose crowns are crowns of gold.

O Mary, what do you hear and see
With your brow toward the West?


Mary:

The snow lies glistening on the tree
And silent on Earth's breast;

And strong and tall, with lifted eyes
Seven shepherds walk this way,
And angels breaking from the skies
Dance, and sing hymns, and pray.


Joseph:

I wonder much at these bright Kings;
The shepherds I despise.


Mary:

You know not what a shepherd sings,
Nor see his shining eyes.

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